


Natural Connection

by FloatAlong



Category: Magic: The Gathering (Card Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Dark Past, Eventual Smut, Fluff, Friendship, Humor, M/M, Modern Era, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Romance, Size Difference, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-27 12:46:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30122973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FloatAlong/pseuds/FloatAlong
Summary: Jace Beleren's recently unexciting life takes a turn when he discovers Garruk, a man in dire need of help, alone in the woods. The two of them have an instant, natural connection - but will they be able to transcend the weight of their respective pasts and become what they need in each other?A slow burn romance fic centring on Jace & Garruk, though many other characters and relationships come into play also. Set in modern day UK, with Jace as a post-grad student. Chapters typically rated T/M for sexual references and swearing, though the explicit chapters containing the heavy smut (I won't be able to resist) will be marked (E). Updates every second Thursday!
Relationships: Chandra Nalaar/Nissa Revane, Jace Beleren/Garruk Wildspeaker, Tomik Vrona/Ral Zarek
Kudos: 3





	Natural Connection

Jace had always been a little special. A little weird. A little different. He didn’t talk about it much – he often went long periods of time without thinking about it at all – but his twenty four years of life so far had been littered with strange coincidences.

His first word, for instance, was ‘bike’. According to his mother, she almost died in a road accident involving a motorbike the following day.

When he was six, he broke down in tears and refused to go to school lessons taught by a particular teacher. It was assumed he was being difficult, acting out as children do; that teacher was arrested years later for having regularly assaulted his wife.

One time, he was chased by a group of bullies on his way home all the way into a part of town he didn’t know – he was completely lost, but the first door he knocked on turned out, by chance, to be the new home of his aunt. She had moved only a month ago and he had never visited, so couldn’t have had any idea.

He regularly visited places for the first time and recognised them from his dreams. It happened quite often that he would know where the toilets were in a place he had never visited without having to look for signs or ask anyone, and only later suppose that this was a little strange. Sometimes he felt like he knew that fights were about to break out before they did, and once or twice he’d ducked or stepped aside to dodge an incoming missile that he later claimed he’d seen thrown – but he hadn’t.

When he was a teenager he’d once dreamed he’d bought a lottery ticket, and remembered the exact numbers after he woke up. He didn’t buy one in real life, of course – the lottery was a tax on people who couldn’t do maths, he always said – though he watched the results anyway out of curiosity, and found he would have won ten thousand pounds if he had. Not that he ever told anyone.

Most recently though, his dreams had been plagued by dogs. One dog, actually. A large, dark and foreboding beast, it crept into dream narratives where it had no right to be. He never saw it clearly – it was painted in darkness even if the rest of the dream happened during the day – but he definitely _heard_ it. The same howl every time, shrill and long and awful, as much like a wolf’s as it was like a dog’s. It frightened him, and he had been waking up in cold sweats. He felt like it meant something, something important. Was it a threat? A warning? What?

  


* * *

  


Jace fidgeted with his notes, nervous he’d missed something he was supposed to have covered already, but it didn’t look like it. He was on track.

‘Okay. Next subject, prime numbers. Crucial to, um, number theory.’ He hated teaching undergraduates, but it gained him extra credit on his own course. It wasn’t that he was shaky on the subject matter – of course, the number theory module he was conducting seminars on was the same one he had passed with flying colours a few years before – but he never felt good at the actual _teaching_ side of things. Standing up in front and _leading the group_. Not really his element. Still, at least it was only once a week.

He cleared his throat. Start easy, that’s what they’d told him. Keep the students engaged. ‘Can anyone tell me what a prime number actually is?’

The bait worked, and someone raised their hand immediately. ‘It’s a number which can only be divided by one and itself.’

‘That’s good, that’s very good – but that definition isn’t quite complete. Does anyone know why?’

Another girl raised her hand eagerly. ‘It’s any _natural number_ _greater than one_ which can only be divided by one and itself,’ she said proudly. ‘Because one is not itself a prime number.’

‘That’s correct!’ Jace said, happy. ‘Although, at higher levels we tend to use a slightly more technical definition…’ he started writing on the blackboard. Could they see from where he was standing? He wasn’t blocking it was he? Stop it Jace, stop worrying about it… ‘A prime number _p_ is any natural number greater than one such that if _p_ divides _ab_ , then either _p_ divides _a_ or _p_ divides _b_.’

He turned around and backed away from the board so they could all see. A few of them were scribbling down his definition, but a few weren’t. Was his handwriting clear enough? He’d often been told off in school for messy handwri— stop it! ‘If you have, uh, a little think about it… I’m sure you’ll see how those are functionally the same thing.’

He consulted his notes again. How long was left? They had to be near the end of the seminar by now. He glanced at the clock – yes, only five more minutes. ‘So, since we all know what a prime number is – can we, uh, prove that there are infinitely many of them? Anyone?’

He waited, but saw no volunteers. He turned back around to the blackboard to prove it himself when he heard a noise from behind him – someone yelping, it sounded like. ‘Yes?’ he asked, turning back around, but they just stared at him, confused.

‘Um, well. Simply put, if there were only finitely many primes, then we could multiply them all together… and then if you added one to the result, then…’

‘Then the resulting number would have to be indivisible by any of them!’ finished the same girl who had spoken up earlier. Jace liked her. She was the main thing keeping this from being a total monologue.

‘Exactly!’ he said, excitedly. ‘Which implies?’

‘Either this new number is divisible by a prime that wasn’t on the list, or it is prime itself,’ she said.

‘Correct,’ Jace said, pleased. ‘So either way, we’ve _missed_ one, so to speak, which shouldn’t be possible. So proof by contradiction implies—’

He was cut off by another sound – no, the _same_ sound as before. But it clearly wasn’t being made by anyone in the room. That awful wailing, or… howling? Oh God. He realised what it was.

‘Did… did anyone hear that?’ he asked the group. He got the same vacant stares as before. He gulped.

‘Well, never mind,’ Jace said awkwardly, aware of the colour draining from his face. ‘It’s just coming up to five now, so… let’s call it a day. We’ve covered everything we need to, and…’ He trailed off as the undergrads started packing away their notepads and stationery, not needing to be told twice. ‘Yes. Um, I’ll see you all next week, then.’

He tried not to let on that anything was wrong as he gathered up his notes and shoved them into his satchel, necessarily having to be the last one out of the room – it was his responsibility to turn off the lights and lock the door – but not wanting to be left alone for any longer than was necessary.

It was as he was scurrying down the stairs of the library that what he feared the most happened – he heard it again, that terrible howl, almost otherworldly. He kept his eyes on the ground and picked up his pace.

Ral Zarek was ordinarily late to meet Jace for any social obligation, but by some miracle Jace saw that this time Ral – dear Ral! – was already waiting for him outside the entrance to the library, five o’clock, just as they had agreed. He rushed up to him.

‘There you are, sweet thing,’ Ral greeted. ‘Have a nice seminar? Sculpt a few minds?’ His face fell a little as he saw Jace in the better light of the sinking sun. ‘Jesus Jace, you look like shit. Everything okay?’

‘You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,’ Jace said. ‘Let’s just… let’s just leave. We can talk on the way. I haven’t eaten anything all day.’

‘What else is new,’ Ral joked, but sensed Jace’s urgency and didn’t push him any further.

Their plan had been to eat some food in their favourite canteen – there was an upstairs area where they liked to sit, catch up, and share a few problems from their respective fields. Jace was in pure mathematics, and Ral was in engineering, so they could usually find some common ground: even if the small issue of Ral’s work actually being theoretically _useful in_ _real life_ struck Jace as a little dirty sometimes.

Jace refused to tell Ral what had been bothering him – what could he possibly stand to gain, anyway, from telling his friend that the nightmarish hound that had been haunting his dreams had somehow manifested and was now haunting even his waking moments? – but he decided he would just attribute it to stress and ignore it for the time being. It would probably go away by itself. He’d feel better in the morning.

He talked with Ral for an hour or two about reassuringly imaginary problems such as the twin prime conjecture, and after this and a bit of hot food Jace had to concede he was feeling a little better. He was beginning, in fact, to forget that anything had been out of the ordinary.

‘The LGBTQ society is having another social next week,’ Ral said to him as he scrunched up his chocolate bar wrapper and threw it onto the empty plate on his tray. ‘Big icebreaker thing. Tomik and I will be going, of course.’ He paused. ‘And probably Nissa, and Chandra too.’ He shifted in his seat. ‘I, uh, think it’ll be fun. Might be nice to meet some fresh faces—’

‘I’m not going,’ Jace said without looking up from his notes.

‘I wasn’t saying you had to,’ Ral said quickly. ‘I just thought… I’d invite you along anyway. You know. Get you… out of the house for a bit. Might… do you some good.’

‘I’m fine.’ Jace scowled, resenting the idea that someone might know better than him what was ‘good’ for him.

‘Sure, sure,’ Ral said, obviously trying not to look deflated. ‘Just thought I’d ask.’

  


* * *

  


When they finally packed up their things it was after seven, it was night outside, and Jace was beginning to yawn. God, he could probably go to bed right now and sleep until morning, he thought. It seemed he’d been sleeping more and more lately, but was always still tired during the day no matter how much he slept.

Jace’s accommodation was owned by the university, and on the outskirts of the campus. Ral lived with Tomik and a couple more roommates a little further away, but Jace’s flat was in the same direction, so they were able to walk together for a while.

‘We should do this again,’ Ral was saying as they walked, taking the route that led them past the border to the woods. ‘Even if it’s not something big, like an LGBTQ social. Can be something small. I know the others would like to see you a little more. I – Jace?’

Jace had stopped, allowing Ral to walk on a few paces. He frowned. This felt… familiar. ‘I’m having déjà vu,’ he said, still not moving. ‘I remember this happening. I remember us walking this way.’

‘Come on Jace,’ Ral chided. ‘Not like you to be superstitious. Besides, we walk this way all the time.’

Jace didn’t answer, but looked out into the treeline of the woods. It was dark, and he couldn’t see more than a few feet past the first tree trunks. He stared, trying to discern movement in the darkness, because it was what he had done in the dream. He didn’t know what he was looking for. After a moment, he heard it.

It was the dog’s howl again, the one that had been haunting him. Long, and high, and shrill. This time, though, there was a difference. Jace finally understood – it wasn’t a threat, or a warning. It was a cry for help.

‘Did you hear that?’ he asked Ral.

‘Of course I heard it,’ Ral answered. ‘If I didn’t know better, I’d say it sounded like a wolf. But obviously there aren’t any wolves in this part of the worl—’

‘We have to find it. I think it’s important,’ Jace said, and began marching to the treeline. The sound had come from inside the woods, yes, and not too far away – but beyond that it was difficult to pinpoint a direction. He placed his hand on the trunk of the first tree, and looked around. Seeing nothing, he marched on.

‘What? Why? Jace!’ Ral called. ‘For heaven’s sake, come back!’

But Jace was still going, stumbling a little on the undergrowth. The only source of light now was the moon, and the autumn canopy was still thick enough with leaves that not enough moonlight was getting through for him to see well. He paused, resting against a tree, catching his breath.

As if knowing he needed more help, the howl came again. Jace’s eyes snapped in the direction it seemed to be coming from, and this time he thought he saw movement. He hurried on.

The dog led him on further, their game of Marco Polo iterating a few more times and bringing Jace deeper into the woods. It was hard to tell how far. Eventually he stumbled, bringing his foot down on ground that wasn’t there, and felt his heart in his throat as he lost his balance and slid several feet down a small ridge. He picked himself up, dusted himself off, tested his ankle – he’d twisted it a bit funny but it didn’t feel sprained – and realised he had no idea where he was or how to get back.

He looked around, trying to find the dog again. It was nowhere to be seen, and its howls had stopped. He felt foolish. What was he doing? He listened desperately, trying to hear some sound of civilisation or the cars of a nearby road, something he could orient himself by, but there was nothing. All was silence.

Wait. Almost silence.

He was sure he heard a rustling, just ahead of him, near to the ground. He looked for the dog, but saw nothing. After a moment, he heard something else – a groan. A human noise.

Frowning, Jace moved in the direction of the sound. Treading more cautiously now, he stepped over some gnarled roots, brushed past a bush and located the source.

There, sitting in a small clearing and illuminated by moonlight, was a man. Hmm. Perhaps ‘sitting’ wasn’t the right term. Halfway between sitting and lying, he was slumped up against the foot of a tree. He was dressed in hardwearing clothes – hunter green shirt and trousers that looked like they were made of sackcloth, and a darkly coloured cloak made of fur and other material. One hand was clutching at his stomach, the other hanging limply at his side. His eyes were squeezed tightly shut.

He was also absolutely enormous.

Jace simply stood there, unsure what to do. The man didn’t look like he was sleeping. He looked like he was in pain. As he watched, the man groaned again, baring gritted teeth.

There was no way of knowing if this man was violent or not. Jace had a choice – if he turned around now, he could probably slip away without alerting the man to his presence. This was what instinct told him to do. But on the other hand… superstitious or not, Jace couldn’t help but shake the feeling that he’d been led here. That it was some kind of providence that caused this encounter. No – stop it Jace. There’s no such thing as providence.

But then, this man looked like he needed help. That was what it came down to. Forget everything else. Was he the kind of person to offer help to a stranger in need?

He took a deep breath, and stepped forward a little.

‘Hello?’ he asked cautiously. He didn’t get a response, so he moved closer still. ‘Hello?’

The man shifted his head a little, looking in Jace’s direction. For a moment, they locked eyes. Jace felt strange. Neither of them moved.

‘Are… are you okay?’ Jace asked nervously.

‘…No,’ the man said. His voice was deep, and hoarse. He did not sound well. ‘Don’t feel good.’

Emboldened, Jace moved nearer until he was standing above him. No, he didn’t look well, either. His lips were chapped and his mouth was dry. His breathing was a little ragged, and his eyes were slightly sunken. ‘What’s wrong?’ Jace asked. The man was still clutching at his stomach, but he didn’t have any obvious physical injuries.

‘Don’t feel good,’ the man repeated, and grunted. He seemed to resent talking about it.

‘Can I—’ Jace started, reaching out with a hand, but froze when the man grabbed his wrist. His grip was powerful, and Jace tried not to whimper. ‘I… I promise I’m n-not going to hurt you,’ he stammered.

The man snarled a little, but released his grip. Jace took his hand. ‘I’m just going to pinch your skin a little. Again, I promise I won’t hurt you.’

The man grunted his consent, and Jace pinched the skin of his hand slightly. It was dry, and was slow to stretch back to its original shape. ‘I know what’s wrong with you,’ Jace said.

‘Jace!’ a voice called from some distance away. It was Ral.

‘Ral?’ Jace called back. ‘Over here!’

There came the sound of a person approaching through the trees, and in his anticipation, Jace had forgotten he was still holding the hand of the sick man. He released it just as Ral burst into the clearing.

‘Jesus Christ Jace, you can’t just go running off like— who’s this?’

‘Not sure,’ Jace said. ‘But he isn’t well. He’s seriously dehydrated.’

‘Who the – how the fuck did he get here? How did you find him?’

‘Doesn’t matter,’ Jace said dismissively. ‘But I don’t think he can stand up on his own. I’ll need your help getting him out of here.’

‘What? Why?!’

Jace shot him a fierce look. ‘What’s the forecast for tonight?’

Ral always knew what the weather was going to be. ‘Partial cloud, low humidity, very little chance of rain…’

‘And the temperature?’

Ral gulped. ‘Averaging around… two degrees Celsius overnight. Possibly a few degrees below zero at the lowest points.’

Jace shivered. ‘And it’s already freezing. He’s not going to survive that, out here with no shelter.’

‘Then why is this _our_ responsibility? Let’s call an ambulance and be done with it.’

Jace looked down at the sick man, who met his eyes again briefly. He shook his large head a little, pleadingly.

‘I don’t think he needs an ambulance,’ Jace said, only half sure of himself. ‘What he definitely needs is hydration, and somewhere warm to stay the night.’

‘Aha. And what, that’s going to be your place, is it?’ Ral scoffed.

‘That’s right.’

Ral raised his eyebrows further than they already had been; they were now dangerously high and at risk of disappearing under his salt and pepper streaked hair. ‘Are you fucking _serious?_ ’

But Jace ignored him. ‘Do you have the energy to stand by yourself, do you think?’ he asked the lying man.

He grunted, and then scrunched his face up in concentration as he tried to heave himself upright. Jace offered a hand to help him up, but the tremendous size difference between the two of them rendered his assistance laughable. He made it to his feet, but was swaying dangerously.

‘Come on, Ral, give me a hand. I’ll take the left side if you take the right.’

Ral still seemed conflicted, but reluctantly agreed as the four-legged eldritch horror of Jace and the stranger seemed like it would topple over without a little balancing out. ‘Fine,’ he said. ‘But I’m not happy about this.’

‘Okay. One step at a time, yeah?’ Jace said calmly. ‘Off we go.’

And so they marched, ever so slowly, out of the forest. Their footfalls became easier once Ral guided them back to the main path, and from there it wasn’t too far to Jace’s flat. Heading up the stairs was tricky, especially since the stairwell wasn’t comfortably broad enough for the stranger, let alone all three of them together – but finally they made it to Jace’s front door.

‘There’s a bathroom at the end on the left, if you need it,’ Jace said after he’d unlocked the door and flicked on the lights. The man slumped out of their support, and trudged down the short hallway to where Jace had indicated.

‘ _What the fuck are you thinking?_ ’ Ral hissed as soon as the bathroom door was closed. ‘You can’t just invite random people back to your house. He knows where you live, now.’

‘You worry too much. He’s not given us any reason to be afraid of him.’

‘He was lying, on his own, in the middle of the woods,’ Ral snapped. ‘That’s a pretty big red flag right there. He’s probably insane or something.’ He irritably rubbed at the side of his neck where the man’s armpit had been resting. ‘And he smells funny. Bad.’

Jace frowned. ‘Wouldn’t you, if you’d been through what he’s been through?’

‘What’s he been through?’

Jace opened his mouth to say, but stopped as he realised he didn’t know. ‘Um. I suppose I’m not actually sure.’

‘Mhmm,’ Ral hummed indignantly. ‘I still think we should’ve left him where we found him. Call for help, sure, but there was no need to…’ he paused. ‘Oh Christ, Jace.’

‘What?’ Jace asked, looking up at him, and then immediately looked down again, face flushing, as he realised what Ral was alluding to.

‘What…’ Ral spun on the spot. ‘What happened? Jace, fuck…’

‘I’ve been busy, alright,’ Jace said quietly, hoping that Ral would drop it. ‘It’s possible I’ve… gotten a bit behind on the cleaning and tidying, you know.’

To both men, this was obviously an understatement. Jace’s coffee table was cluttered, with field theory notes stacked under unopened envelopes stacked under empty cereal bar wrappers stacked under dirty coffee mugs. There were clothes strewn across the un-hoovered floor, some on their own and some in piles, some dirty and some clean, none of them folded or ironed. The filthy pots were stacked up in and next to the sink, and the large refuse bin was overflowing. A banana skin had fallen to the floor next to it. There was no surface free from books, rubbish or maths notes, including the floor. Especially the floor. The place was a mess.

‘Is this why… you’ve not let me come around lately?’ Ral asked, apparently unsure as to whether ‘compassionate’ or ‘reproachful’ was the best tone of voice to use, so settling for somewhere between the two. For his part, Jace only wanted him to shut up.

‘Just leave it,’ Jace ordered, more meekly than he would have liked. He stood up and, avoiding eye contact, made his way to the kitchen area. Finding no clean glasses in the cupboard, he reluctantly started washing a dirty one.

‘Look, Jace…’ Ral’s pathetic voice came from behind him. ‘If you need someone to talk to, that’s okay. Obviously I’d understand – _we_ would understand. All of us. After everything you’ve been through…’

Mercifully, Jace was spared the rest of Ral’s pity speech by their company leaving the bathroom and staggering back into the living room. ‘Get yourself sat down on the sofa,’ Jace said to him, filling up the now clean glass.

The man did so, and the sofa audibly creaked under his impressive weight. Jace brought him the glass of water.

‘Jace…’ Ral was saying, but Jace ignored him.

‘Drink this,’ he said to the man, offering him the glass. He seemed reluctant to accept it, but Jace insisted. Eventually he took it, and downed the whole glass in a few gulps. Jace reclaimed the glass, filled it again, and repeated the process.

‘You’re very dehydrated,’ he said. ‘You’re going to need a lot of fluid intake.’

‘Jace,’ Ral said again, a little more insistently.

‘Thank you for your help Ral, you can leave now,’ Jace said coldly. He didn’t look up at him.

‘I…’ Ral started, and then tried again. ‘I’m not sure how comfortable I am leaving you alone with a stranger overnight,’ he said.

Jace looked into the eyes of the enormous man sitting on his couch. ‘What’s… what’s your name?’ he asked.

‘Garruk,’ the man grunted. Perhaps two syllables wasn’t much to go by, but his voice did sound clearer after two glasses of water.

‘My name’s Jace,’ he replied, and then turned to Ral. ‘There you go. We’re not strangers anymore.’

‘You don’t know anything about… _Garruk_.’

‘I know he isn’t going to hurt me.’

‘How can… no offence mate,’ he added to Garruk, ‘but how can you possibly know that?’

Jace thought back to when he’d first seen the man lying in the grass, slumped against the tree, and the two of them had locked eyes – he felt like he knew him in that instant, knew something of his intentions, his life… it was impossible to explain, but he was certain that Garruk was safe. ‘I just know,’ was all he could say.

There was a prolonged silence. Eventually, Ral said from behind him: ‘I can see I’m not going to change your mind. Fuck, Jace, you can be so stubborn sometimes.’ Another pause. ‘Just… just call me if you need me, alright? And message me in the morning. Please.’

Ral opened the door to the flat, let himself out, and closed it behind him. Then there was silence again.

**Author's Note:**

> Here we are then - the first chapter, embarking on a lengthy journey. I'm expecting this fic will probably be somewhere around 50,000 words when I'm done? Though who knows. I have a rough outline but it's not all written yet, so this is my first time working on a single fic that's released serially. I think having a deadline to stick to will do me good!
> 
> Hope you're enjoying so far, and I'll be back in two weeks with the next chapter.


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